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Ellina Mhlanga Sports Reporter
PARTSON Jaure — who will captain the Warriors when they begin their 2015 Nations Cup qualifying campaign in Tanzania this weekend — says his team is drawing inspiration from their good run at the CHAN finals in South Africa earlier this year.The Dynamos defender retains the captain’s armband in the absence of new national team skipper Carlington Nyadombo who is injured and cannot play in Tanzania.
Warriors coach Ian “Dibango” Gorowa revealed on Monday night that Amazulu defender Nyadombo is now the national team skipper and takes over from Denver Mukamba who was not considered for the match in Tanzania.
Mukamba was given the armband by German coach Dieter Klaus Pagels.
Gorowa appointed Jaure captain of the CHAN team but, with the foreign-based players drafted in for the tie against Tanzania, it was always expected that someone will take over from the DeMbare defender.
Gorowa told the weekly Game Plan television programme on national television, on Monday night, that he had settled for Nyadombo as skipper of the Warriors.
But, with Nyadombo not available, Gorowa said vice-captain Jaure will lead the team in Tanzania.
It’s a huge responsibility for the defender who, however, impressed with the way he led his Warriors during the CHAN tournament where they exceeded expectations by reaching the semi-finals of the tournament.
Jaure was part of a defensive rock that gave away very little, during that tournament, and the DeMbare star is now expected to join a South African Premiership side in July.
Yesterday, he talked to The Herald, in his capacity as stand-in skipper of the Warriors and said they wanted a positive result in Tanzania.
“This game, we are taking it very seriously,” said Jaure. “We know them because we once played a friendly match against them and they have very good players.
“Some of the players are foreign-based, some play for TP Mazembe and in other countries and we must be strong as we go out there to play them.
“When we last played them, they really played well.”
Zimbabwe are set to go through a longer qualifying route as they were not one of the seeded teams when the draw for the qualifiers was conducted.
Jaure said they are looking forward to a successful campaign even though their journey is longer this time as they need to first clear the preliminary round hurdles.
“As players we are used to pressure and when we played at CHAN no one believed that we could do well,” said Jaure.
“People were saying we will lose but at least we proved to the nation that we are good players and going to Tanzania we just need to put 100 percent effort so that we beat them.
“We should not underestimate them, thinking they are a small team, we just need to do our homework and beat them. Everyone knows that to get a place in the national team they need to fight for it because we all did well at CHAN.
“Those coming in now also want to prove a point. We just need to put all our effort and that’s the most important thing in soccer.”
Online Reporter